Chronic stress and recurrent yeast infection

Women who suffer from frequent vaginal yeast infections show biochemical signs of being under chronic stress. Researchers from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, studied 35 women who experienced at least four yeast infections during the preceding year and 35 healthy controls. They collected saliva samples from the participants in order to measure levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol levels usually rise in the morning, but the researchers found that this rise was blunted among the patients with recurrent yeast infections compared with the control subjects. A shallow rise in cortisol, somewhat paradoxically, indicates a state of ongoing stress. They also found that more patients than controls had a history of other vaginal infections, supporting the hypothesis of a reduced local immunity in women with recurrent yeast infections. The researchers concluded that chronic stress may play a role in the occurrence of frequent yeast infections. However, further studies are needed to elucidate the connection between all the findings.